The Redemption of Phil Taylor

The basement of Nick Sibley's recording studio on South Campbell Avenue resembles a musician's bunker, encased in concrete and unevenly lit. Here a person can hide, write, play music or just think-all things that suit former Future Leaders of the World frontman Phil Taylor just fine. Two years ago, punk-metal band Future Leaders was touring behind the hit single "Let Me Out," which peaked at No. 6 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, but-as often happens in the music industry-all that came crashing down around Taylor, the group's lead singer and songwriter.

For the last few months Taylor, 24, has spent most of his time in Sibley's studio. He came to Springfield to produce and develop local hard rock singer Tara Ammerman while waiting for his second chance at success to come knocking.

That second chance is MACHINA, a group Taylor formed along with two members of hard-rock headliner Evanescence-guitarist John Le Compt and drummer Rocky Gray-bass player Thad Ables and a second guitarist, Jack Wiese, a member of another Le Compt side project, Mourningside. Taylor, Le Compt and Gray met in Arkansas after Taylor tried and failed to put together a new lineup of musicians for Future Leaders of the World Part II. A revival of Future Leaders didn't happen, but that lineup's drummer, Chad Wilburn, introduced Taylor to Le Compt, who said he was a big fan. The two began playing and writing songs together almost immediately. "When I met Jon it was like going to rehab," Taylor says.

Drugs were just one of the things Taylor needed to get away from by then. When Future Leaders of the World broke up last year, it left in its wake a handful of jilted band members and the broken dreams of Taylor, the group's founder. It was his baby from the beginning; Taylor pursued his love of music from his birthplace in Buffalo, New York to San Francisco and later to Los Angeles, where he was living out of his car while recording a demo. The gamble worked; on his way back to Buffalo, Taylor was signed to a three-song demo deal with Epic Records in 2003. Taylor assembled a group of musicians, and Future Leaders of the World was born.

The band's death was slower but more absolute. It happened in Jackson, Mississippi in May of last year, when Taylor found out Epic had dropped the band from the label. By then the band members weren't even speaking; Taylor says he only had conversations with bassist Bill Hershey. Cocaine and alcohol were a growing problem for Taylor as well. He went out for a walk before that show in Jackson and met a young boy who asked Taylor if he had God in his life. The boy ministered to him, and at the end the two said a prayer together. Until then, Taylor says the struggles he had written about in his music were political, but afterward his focus shifted toward spiritual battles.
Months later, writing with Le Compt on a secluded farm near Benton, Arkansas, Taylor began to find the outlet for his lyrics. He says Le Compt's writing style opened up his singing more and that MACHINA incorporates a broader range of musical influences than Future Leaders of the World did.

When MACHINA finished recording, however, Le Compt and Rocky Gray went on tour behind the new Evanescence album, leaving Taylor to play the waiting game until he has his band back. Rather than play endless acoustic shows that don't interest him, Taylor has decided to work behind the scenes helping other artists write and record their own material. While working in Arkansas, he heard Ammerman's demo and chose to move to Springfield to guide her as a vocalist and songwriter. Taylor says he views developing another artist as its own art form. In fact, it's a long-term goal of Taylor's to take on producing and engineering when he steps away from the mic for good.

But right now, playing live is all Taylor can think about; it's been almost a year and a half since he has had the chance. MACHINA won't pick up where it left off until sometime next year, but he can wait. Until then, he has his bunker, his work and his friends. But he won't be hiding much longer.